Cover Florida: A start will help.

Health care coverage costs a fortune in Florida, and one of the reasons is that the Legislature has gotten into the business of practicing medicine. Health insurance companies have to deal with more than 50 legislative mandates in setting rates, which drives up costs.

These mandates, for such things as acupuncture and certain screenings, come at the behest of health care providers and their lobbyists. While the procedures may have merit and not cost much individually, together they make insurance unaffordable for millions.

Gov. Charlie Crist this year pushed an idea to permit the sale of health care policies stripped of many of the mandates. The Legislature passed the plan by a unanimous vote, and policies should be available to Floridians next year for as little as $150 a month.

Radical egalitarians decry the legislation as unfair to those without sufficient means to pay for top shelf coverage. But what would they prefer, a two-tiered system, or no coverage at all for 3.8 million Floridians who currently dont have health insurance? Besides, they should take note that two-tiered systems are the norm even in the socialist universe.

Government funded Medicare covers elderly Americans, but private medigap policies are available to those who can afford to enhance their Medicare coverage.

Great Britain has national health insurance, but it also has long waiting lines for procedures that are considered commonplace in the United States. As a result, a thriving private insurance market has developed across the pond for those who can pay the freight.

Propagandist Michael Moore praises Cubas universal health care system in his film Sicko. But a person would have to be delusional to actually believe the Castro brothers and the rest of the Communist Party elite receive the same quality of medical care as a comrade on a commune.

Its great to drive a luxury car, but a Honda Civic can also get a person from here to there. Floridas new medical insurance plan may not have all the bells and whistles of a Mercedes Benz, but it could provide millions of Floridians with the medical coverage they need.